Free The Destroyed by Brett Battles Page B

had seen in the city, a beautiful two-story home constructed of glass and metal that would have fit in nicely next door to Quinn’s place in the Hollywood Hills.
    The driver parked in a designated area not too far beyond the gate, and they all climbed out.
     “While I’m getting some lunch together,” Daeng said as he led them inside, “you can use one of my laptops. There’s one on the kitchen bar.”
    “Thanks,” Quinn said. “Will it track what I’m doing?”
    Daeng bowed slightly. “There’s tracking software on all of my computers, but it can be easily turned off.”
    “Good. I’d like you to do that.”
    The interior of the house was surprisingly spartan, given how the outside looked. Utilitarian furniture that was nice but not expensive, a few photographs and a handful of paintings on the white walls and that was about it. There were none of the touches a designer might have added, and nothing beyond the paintings and photographs that could be considered decorative. The only lavish item was a waterfall built into the wall in the foyer. It would have probably been beautiful but it wasn’t running, and there was no water in the small pool at its base. Through the windows of the living room, Nate could see a grass area in back where at least a dozen kids were playing while four or five women watched.
    The kitchen was off to the left and opened into a dining room with a simple wooden table long enough to seat twenty people. Between the two rooms was a raised bar with a closed computer on top.
    Daeng tapped away at several keys then took a step back. “All set.”
    Quinn immediately got on, and Nate moved in behind him.
    ADR-3 was one of dozens of remote servers Quinn, Nate, and Orlando used when necessary. They were all owned by companies that had no idea part of their computer storage space had been usurped for private use.
    Using the appropriate login and password, Quinn quickly found the file Peter had uploaded and copied it onto Daeng’s machine.
    While they waited for the transfer, Nate said, “You want to tell me who this Mila Voss is now?” He’d tried asking a few times on the boat, but Quinn had said nothing.
    Nate thought he would get the same non-response as before, but Quinn said, “She was a courier.”
    “A courier? Was she supposed to have been killed in action?” While the majority of the time a courier’s job was a piece of cake, it could also be extremely dangerous. Mostly they traveled alone, and there was always the danger of someone wanting the packages they carried.
    But Quinn said, “She wasn’t on an assignment at the time. Well, I guess technically she was, but…”
    Nate frowned. “So…someone ordered her killed. That’s why you were there. To get rid of her body?”
    A pause. “Yes.”
    “And yet she’s alive.”
    Quinn made no reply.
    A few seconds later, the download finished. Quinn opened the file and hit PLAY .
    The first part started with a man falling to his death in front of a building. This was soon followed by the arrival of another man wearing a baseball cap. Both Nate and Quinn watched with trained eyes as the second man checked the body for any signs of life, then got up and disappeared into the crowd.
    The second part of the video was a split screen showing the man in the cap on both sides, then one side morphed into an image of a woman while the other remained unchanged.
    Quinn hit PAUSE .
    “That’s her?” Nate asked, surprised by the transformation.
    Quinn nodded.
    “So she is alive.”
    Quinn closed the computer. “That was never an issue.”
    “You mean you knew ?”
    “Of course I knew.”
    “But you told Peter she was dead.”
    “I told Peter I got rid of a body.”
    “You made it pretty clear you thought it was her.”
    Quinn remained silent for several seconds, then said, “If I’d told him the truth, Mila wouldn’t have lasted another twenty-four hours.”
    “Wait. I just want to get something straight. Did you know she was